Tidy Your Craft Room With The Marie Kondo Method

It’s that time of the year, people are getting ready to spring clean ready for a fresh start before the rush of spring/summer 2019 and we are here to help! We know that your craft room can quickly become cluttered, so we’ve compiled our tips and tricks, inspired by the great Marie Kondo, to help you along.

Marie Kondo has taken the world by storm, with her Netflix show has becoming a bit of a cultural phenomenon in recent months. Tidying Up with Marie Kondo features a series of home makeovers, which sees Kondo herself help clients kick the clutter. So what is it about this professional tidier that people have taken so readily to?

Kondo’s method of organisation is known as the KonMari Method™, which promotes tidying by category. Starting with clothes, those looking to get organised then move onto books, papers, and komono (miscellaneous items), before finally sorting through sentimental items. Each item is kept only if it “sparks joy” and if it doesn’t, it is thanked for its service and then let go. Once you’re left with only your most joy-sparking items, then they are to be put in a place that is easily visible, accessible, and easy to grab and put back. It’s at this point of the two-pronged method that you’ll have reached a state of ultimate organisation in your housekeeping, and you will never look back!

Kondo advises people to begin with the item that they’re supposedly least emotionally invested in – their clothing – before moving onto other categories around the home. Focusing on categories, rather than rooms, is an incredibly proactive way to blitz the clutter – dealing with, say, your clothes all at once will stop them spilling out and creeping from room to room.

People worldwide have been inspired by Kondo’s method of tidying, not just because of how effective it can be, but because of its focus on mindfulness and introspection.

Today, we’re going to show you how you can introduce a little bit of Marie Kondo’s philosophy into your craft room! Whether you’re blessed with lots of space, or you have a bit of crafting space when you can at the kitchen table, we’re going to show you some really easy ways to organise your stash.

Crafts:

Die Storage:

Dies are a fun and easy way to create incredible crafts but they can be difficult to store. We’ve come up with a way to store dies that makes them easy to access and keeps them it great condition.

1. Take an 8”x8” First Edition Scrapbook.

2. Using the magnetic sheets that come in the back of First edition dies, layer them to make an 8”x8” square.

3. Cover this with your favourite 8”x8” paper and put inside the sleeves.

4. Simply attach your dies to the outside of the sheet and they will stick!

This is a great way to not only keep dies safe, but organised. Arrange them by category (nature, party, baby etc...) or match the paper to the theme of the dies. These will stack either horizontally or vertically on shelves and keep dies easy to access.

Embellishment storage:

Do you have any jars lying around? If so here is a top tip. Use the We R Memory Keepers Label It to create cute retro style labels and organise small embellishment in your jars.

Sometimes the simplest of tricks can get things tidied away in no time.

This included some of The We R Memory Keepers Label Maker – Available on Amazon

Card Organisation:

If you make or buy your greetings cards well in advance of the occasion then you might need somewhere to store them. Our Greetings Card Organiser tutorial is here to help.

Created using the First Edition Wanderlust 12”x12” Paper Pad – Available at Hobbycraft and The Range

With 12 helpful dividers, this project will allow you to store all of your stunning cards in preparation for the coming months, without the worry of forgetting where you’ve put them once made or bought! Click here to find out how to make it!

Washi Tape Organisation:

If you love using washi tape in your crafting, scrapbooking, or journaling then you will love this make.

Created using the First Edition Botanical Beauty 12”x12” Paper Pad – Available at Hobbycraft

This requires minimal tools and materials and can be created in a matter of minutes. (It’s also a cool way of displaying your favourite tapes on your desktop for easy access!) Click here to watch our tutorial.

Inspiration:

Peg Board Organisation.

This organisation tip is one of our favourites, a peg board! This is one of the most popular ways to organise your regular crafting items and keep them easy to access. Whether it’s a small peg board or a full length wall peg board, there are so many ways to stay organised.

Use the pegs to store your crafting tools, scissors, tape and more! This is the simplest way to organise using your peg board.

These peg board shelves are amazing for keeping bigger items out of the way and adding small decorative items that spark joy!

Struggling to keep you washi tapes neat whilst working on projects? Simply take an appropriate length of ribbon and tie to two pegs. With this you can easily thread on your favourite washi tapes and keep them neat and tidy.

Desk Organisation.

Why not keep your craft stash organised with the Bloom expandable storage for all of your embellishments? Marie often states that using little boxes to keep things tidy is a good way to keep things organised. Expand all sixteen compartments in a single twist and view all of your stored items at the same time! This is perfect for smaller craft supplies such as buttons, sequins and toppers or you can also use this for makeup, jewellery and more. With its many organisational compartments and cute floral design, this is sure to spark joy in your life!

This included some of The We R Memory Keepers Bloom Storage – Available on Amazon

We all love a good paper pad, but storing them can be an absolute nightmare! There is nothing worse than spending good money on the designs you love only to have them tear or become dog-eared just because they are hard to store. Part of the KonMari Method™ is to keep everything organised and accessible, so these We R Memory Keepers clear stackable paper trays are perfect for storing loose paper and papers pads. This keeps them neat and easy to find, so none of your lovely papers are forgotten. These trays are easy to assemble and can expand to fit your growing craft collection.

This included some of The We R Memory Keepers Clear Acrylic Paper Trays – Available on Amazon

The Principles of KonMari Method™

Are you now feeling inspired to adopt the KonMari Method across the rest of your belongings? We’ve rounded up the top principles below for you to follow in your day to day life!

This is something that will really help you in the decluttering stage. When you are going though you items, really think if something sparks joy. If it does and you really want it, keep it! If not, it is time to let it go, but these items don’t have to go to waste. Why not donate old items from your craft room that no longer spark joy and donate them to a crafting group or charity? There are always places looking for donations and who knows, maybe your old items will spark joy in someone else!

- Everything needs a home.

This is the golden rule of tidying! If you are truly determined to keep things clean and organised then everything must have its place or it will pile up.

- There is an emotional weight tied to stuff.

An excess of things can make you feel heavy. Clutter clouds your mind and tidiness and order bring calm and clarity. Getting rid of things can give you an emotional release leaving you feeling lighter emotionally.

- Storing things upright gives you perspective.

Not knowing where things are can be frustrating and make you avoid things that you love to do. As Marie Kondo explains in her show, this issue boils down to how things are stored. If you can’t see/find something, you usually forget about it and buy a replacement leading to clutter.

If you organise all items so you can see everything when you open a drawer, you’ll know exactly what is there. No digging or searching for what you need!

- It’s a process.

Realistically you will not be able to do this in one day and that’s okay! This process requires you to be present in the moment for large chunks of time which you probably don’t have. Just take it one step at a time and don’t be discouraged if you don’t finish one category in a day. Often things look worse before they get better when organising and that’s okay, just keep going!

- Show gratitude.

This is an important part of the KonMari Method™. Showing appreciation for the objects in your life is important as it helps you to remember their value and what they mean to you. Whether it’s your die machine that helps you to create wonderful crafts of the chair that keeps you comfortable for the many hours it takes to make a projects it is important to remember that they all help to bring you joy!

What do you think to this fun organisation projects? Don’t forget to let us know if you give any of these a try by sharing your makes in the inspiration area and on social media using #Trimcraft.

A special thanks to Marie Kondo and the KonMari Method™for inspiring us to organise our craft spaces! If you want to find out more visit KonMarie.com or watch the show on Netflix!

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Amazing ideas here, and she´s so right in everything, and I actually think, it´s pretty much how I work already, as I can´t work in clutter, and always need to clean everything, every time I´ve finished a project, so it´s all clean and sorted, when I get onto a new project. Loved this for sure and totally agree.

Thank you! We are the same here at Trimcraft HQ! Working in clutter can feel so chaotic and often ends in our lovely projects being lost in storage or getting broken. Implementing this method has helped us so much!